


It's Not So Wise

by Mikkal



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Torture, more hurt not so much comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-19 12:33:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5967540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mikkal/pseuds/Mikkal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>Blue lightning sparks and when he touches the stranger’s chest, yellow dances out to meet him, curling around Zoom’s claws. He chokes, gasping, and then he’s <i>screaming</i>, dropping to his knees, back arched.</p>
</blockquote><p>With Barry being captured by Zoom, Jesse finds herself sharing her prison with the Earth-1's Flash.</p>
<p>It wasn't suppose to go this way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Not So Wise

**Author's Note:**

> This ignores...two? things:  
> One, it ignores the man in the mask tapping out Morse code.  
> Two, if Barry told Jesse who he was when he sees her for the first time, this ignores that too.
> 
> (update: five hours later, itunes uploaded the episode. Added the lines barry says to Jesse to the beginning of the story. he does not say his name for her.)

> _“You wandered through the willows_
> 
> _In the forest you have found_
> 
> _Trying to hide your footprints in the ground_
> 
> _It’s not wise, if you try to run_
> 
> _It’s not wise, you know I’ve won_
> 
> _And you’ll smile, on your knees.”_

"Jesse. Jesse! I'm here with your dad. We're gonna get you out of here, all right? I promise!"

Her heart flutters at these comforting words from a complete stranger. She’s behind bars and he’s behind glass, but he looks so confident, so sure of himself—and he said he’s here with her _dad_.

 But then the air turns sour, static-y, and her stomach plummets. Blue lightning flickers and Zoom appears, towering over them like never before. Something’s changed, the universe has turned the wrong way on its axis, taking everyone along for the ride whether they like it or not.

The stranger dressed in red stands a straight line in front of the demon, even as Zoom taunts him with their prison being the last thing he’ll ever see. The man’s eyes flicker to her and he gives a small, reassuring smile that somehow _works_. She feels better, more in control.

            Is his power over confidence? Emotion?

( _then why would Zoom want him? That’s a stupid thought, Jesse.)_

 “Good luck trying to escape.” —not human, not animal. A hiss of static and hell. Was this, this _thing_ ever human? “ _Flash_.”

 Zoom reaches out, ever-so-slowly, the glass slides away and the red-clad stranger backs away, expression pure fear. This isn’t the first time he’s met Zoom, that much is obvious.

Blue lightning sparks and when he touches the stranger’s chest, yellow dances out to meet him, curling around Zoom’s claws. He chokes, gasping, and then he’s _screaming_ , dropping to his knees, back arched.

Jesse surges to the bars of her cage, wrapping her hands tight around them, her knuckles straining. “No! No, Zoom, leave him alone!”

Where is this braveness coming from?

“Please!”

Where was this braveness when she needed it the most?

Zoom just laughs, dark, spine-chilling and the stranger just screams and screams. Jesse covers her ears, but that doesn’t help _at all_.

Screaming. Screaming.

Until silence.

 Zoom—Zoom is _gone_ , faster than she’s ever seen and the stranger is on the floor, gasping for a breath–just at least one breath, please. The infernal glass is back.

Jesse kneels to his level, reaching through the bars for him even though she knows perfectly well it’s useless. “It’s going to be okay,” she whispers, barely heard over his gasping probably. He’s curling up now, arms crossing over his chest to protect himself. “It’s,” she takes a deep breath. “It’s going to be okay. What your name?”

The beat of silence is almost too long, but he finally lets out a slow, “B-Barry.”

“It’s going to be okay, Barry.”

* * *

 

_It’s not okay._

Three hours later and another visit from Zoom leaves Barry curled up even tighter on the ground, whimpering, gasping, almost-silent tears shiny on his cheeks. Zoom stands above him, marveling at his vibrating hand. It looks no different to Jesse, but, then again, all of her attention is on Barry.

He’s pale and shaking, his lips white. He bites a knuckle, squeezing his eyes shut. Her chest feels hollow, empty—she’s so _useless._ Couldn’t get herself out of this mess, let alone Barry. Barry who was so confident just three hours ago that they would get out of here, that her dad was looking for her.

But look at them now.

Zoom kneels down next to him, running a clawed-hand through Barry’s sweat soaked hair. She shivers in disgust in response for Barry, the man unable to do anything but shiver in pain.

“I’ll be back,” Zoom says, a promise, a threat. It sounds like a lover’s croon twisted, disgusting.

Before Jesse could blink twice and still see Zoom speeding away. Now she blinks once and he’s gone, gone is a flash. Barry whimpers, choking on a sob. Jesse’s heart breaks for him.

“Barry? Can you hear me?” she tries. “Come on, tell me another story about Earth-1.”

 He doesn’t answer. He goes from biting his knuckle to covering his mouth with his hand, muffling another sob.

 “Tell me about Iris, Cisco, Caitlin. Tell me about your mom. I know you keep leaving out the best parts.”

She sits cross-legged, shoulder pressing uncomfortably against the bars, one hand between two of them, her palm up like she’s expecting him to reach out and take it for comfort. She has half the mind to take her hand back, it feels like she’s taunting comfort in front of him, but she can’t bring herself to move, her body numb.

She was never really tortured under Zoom’s thumb. Reverb liked to show up sometimes and taunt her with visions he’s claimed to see of other Earths, like to talk about how her father was gallivanting off on another Earth without a thought for her. He’d send pulses through her arms, her foot, that made her teeth ache and her ribs rattle. But beyond that, Zoom fed her and didn’t keep her warm, loomed over her threateningly.

But this, what he’s doing to Barry, goes _beyond_ that.

 “Barry,” she urges. “Please talk to me.”

Green eyes flicker, looking up through clumped eyelashes weighed by tears. Pain crinkles around his eyes, tightens his mouth–he moves his hand to clutch both hands together, squeezing hard. His gloves disappeared somewhere between hour two and three, his cowl in the corner, the collar of his costume undone.

 “Iris,” she prompts.

 His voice is just barely there, a wisp of sound, but he talks. He tells her about Miss. Iris West–Detective here, a badass journalist on his Earth. He tells her he’d probably stumble on Earth-3 one day and wouldn’t be surprised to see Madam President Iris West making an announcement.

* * *

 

Jesse always fancied herself a hero like her dad.

He didn’t put on the winged helmet or held a golden trident, but he’s a scientist first and foremost, he broke the previously established laws of physics and saved countless people through his brilliance and gadgets.

She helped him build the particle accelerator. It was their family project.

—she’s never felt less a hero than she does right at this moment.

 Barry. Barry, before, screamed and cried, but never spoke a word.

“No, no, nonono,” he gasps now, desperately. “P-Please, s-stop.”

He scrabbles at Zoom’s arm, struggling to push him away. He begs, pleads for him to be let go. Zoom just sinks his claws in deeper, making him cry out, and the blue and yellow lightning clash together like titans. He sobs, big, choking sobs.

“N-No m-more,” he begs. “P-Please.”

Zoom just drops him, Barry goes sprawling, his chest heaving, breathing labored. His eyes unseeing, staring up at the ceiling.

And then Zoom _laughs_.

* * *

 

“My dad hasn’t always been so cold,” she tells a silent Barry. “I’m sure you saw that when he was on your Earth. Back when ma was alive he was this complete and utter _dork_ , like you wouldn’t believe.”

She brings her legs close to her chest, wrapping her arms around them in a tight hug. Jesse rests her chin on her knees, her eyes on Barry’s shallowly moving chest–assuring herself that he’s still breathing, that he’s still alive.

“She’s only been dead for five years,” she continues. He hasn’t spoken a word in ten hours. It’s been fifteen since Barry’s come into her life. Fifteen long, long hours. “Five years, two months, almost exactly at this point. They were the most embarrassing parents _ever._ But I loved them, you know?”

Barry’s fingers twitch, but she doesn’t take that as a good sign. It’s not a bad one either, though. It just…is.

 “I hope we get the chance to hang out,” she says. “You, me, other you, both Iris-es, Cisco, Caitlin, Wally. My dad, both your dads—Joe and Henry. We could have a party. A ‘we defeated Zoom!’ party. Or a ‘we escaped Zoom!’ party. I’d be okay with that last one too. What about you? What kind of party do you want?”

There’s a small flicker of yellow lightning that curls over his fingers, up his arm, to his shoulder before it dissipates. It’s weak, the tendrils barely keeping together. The bright sunshine yellow from before a dull, sad color.

“Barry—.”

His lips are moving, speaking silent, nonsense words, his gaze blank and dull.

 “What kind of party would you want to throw?

“Barry?

“Please say something. _Please_.”


End file.
